Think Like A Freak By Steven D. Levitt Essay examples

Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner SOAPstone

When economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner published Freakonomics, many asked the authors, how do they think like this? How can one think like this? In response, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner wrote Think Like a Freak, a how-to guide on extreme outside of the box thinking. By asking obvious questions, thinking like a child, and many other strange behaviors that can only be explained with the help of a seemingly unrelated story, a person can “think like a Freak”.
First, through collaboration of the two authors, a single speaker emerges. In response to how the two worked together in the Q&A section of Think Like a Freak, Dubner responded that, “Levitt has done research and written an academic paper, and then I ask him to help me figure out the story to write,” (Think Like a Freak, pg. 271). There doesn’t seem to be a split identity in the speaker, even though two worked on the book together. For example, the authors don’t usually refer to one another. In Chapter 6, they use the example of one of giving candy as an incentive for their children to be potty-trained. In this case, they wrote in third person, referring to Levitt as, “Her mother was so frustrated that she turned the task over to her father, one of the authors of this book. He was supremely confident. Like most economists, he believed he could solve any problem by setting up the right incentives.” One of the…

Related Documents

The Webster dictionary defines a freak as such “one that is markedly unusual or abnormal”. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have a slightly different perspective on the term freak. “To think a bit differently, a bit harder, a bit more freely” (Think Like a Freak, 211). Throughout their novel, they encourage you, as the reader, to think diversely in your everyday life. Each chapter guides you through a new insightful way to think about situations. From admitting that you just don’t know, using…

challenges which come with having both legs amputated below the hip, Tartaglio worked twice as hard as the next guy to achieve what he worked for months to achieve. While doing so, Tartaglio and Chapin are targeting readers who may feel self-conscious, like Tartaglio did, as well as readers who are pushing themselves to achieve their goals but may feel lost or as if they will never reach their goals. The pair enforces the idea that giving up is not an option.
The two most prominent examples the pair provides…

and plastics over the places; hence, this cause the waste disposals, deforestation, and water pollutions. While the pollution continues to affect the lives of Californians, the underlying question is: do we have a single patriotic Californian who thinks going green to liberate California out of this predicament? According to the two authors, Richard H. Thaler and Cass. R. Sunstein’s book titled Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, a nudge is clearly needed; the action “alters…

While pollution continues to affect the lives of city dwellers, the underlying question is do we have even a single patriotic Californian who thinks going green to liberate the State out of this predicament? What must be done to ensure a more eco-friendly system suitable for human inhabitation? Definitely, the only appropriate solution to an environmental crisis is to recycle waste materials. Recycling is the most viable solution to the environment-based issues in California that have steadily threatened…